192 
THE LOOKING-GLASS. 
Chap. IX. 
Batoka, because captured from that tribe, is of diminutive size, 
but very beautiful; and closely resembles the short-horns of our 
own country. The little pair presented by the Kmg of Portugal 
to H.R.H. the Prince Consort, is of this breed. They are very 
tame, and remarkably playful; they may be seen lymg on their 
sides by the fires in the evening; and, when the herd goes out, 
the herdsman often precedes them, and has only to commence 
capering to set them all a-gambolling. The meat is superior to 
that of the large animal. The other, or Barotse ox, is much 
larger, and comes from the fertile Barotse Valley. They stand 
high on then: legs, often nearly six feet at the withers; and they 
have large horns. Those of one of a similar breed that we brought 
from the lake measured from tip to tip eight and a half feet. 
The Makololo are in the habit of shaving off a little from one 
side of the horns of these animals when still growing, in order to 
make them cmwe in that direction and assume fantastic shapes. 
The stranger the curvature, the more handsome the ox is con¬ 
sidered to be, and the longer this ornament of the cattle-pen is 
spared to beautify the herd. This is a very ancient custom in 
Africa, for the tributary tribes of Ethiopia are seen, on some of 
the most ancient Egyptian monuments, bringing contorted-horned 
cattle into Egypt. 
All are remarkably fond of their cattle, and spend much time 
in ornamenting and adorning them. Some are branded all over 
with a hot knife, so as to cause a permanent discolomration of the 
hair, in lines like the bands on the hide of a zebra. Pieces of 
skin two or three inches long and broad are detached, and allowed 
to heal in a dependent position around the head—a strange style 
of ornament; indeed, it is difficult to conceive in what their 
notion of beauty consists. The women have somewhat the same 
ideas with om-selves of what constitutes comeliness. They came 
frequently and asked for the looking-glass; and the remarks 
they made—-wliile I was engaged in reading, and apparently 
not attending to them—on first seeing themselves therem, were 
amusingly ridiculous. Is that me ? ” “ What a big mouth I 
have! ” “ My ears are as big as pumpkin-leaves.” “ I have no 
chin at all.” Or, “ I would have been pretty, but am spoiled by 
these high cheek-bones.” “ See how my head shoots up in the 
middle ! ” laughing vociferously all the time at their own jokes. 
They readily perceive any defect in each other, and give nick- 
